The Gambia’s state energy company, Nawec, has accumulated a staggering D9 billion debt over an unspecified period of time, Finance Minister Amadou Sanneh told lawmakers.
Sanneh said the indebted public institution also struggles with old generators and an unsustainable operational cost.
The Finance minister said the energy company shoulders a “D9 billion debt… with an ageing fleet of generators and an unsustainable operational cost” as he tabled the approved revised national budget before lawmakers.
Sanneh further blamed the previous regime for “abuse of state-owned enterprise (Gamtel, SSHFC, Nawec, etc) through the embezzlement of funds amounting to D4.7 billion within three years.”
Nawec currently covers about 42% of country’s energy needs.
The national company has announced plans a couple of months ago to outsource energy from Senegal, as that country currently has about 200MW surplus.
Nawec’s director Baba Fatajo told journalists months ago that they need over US$66 million to meet the projected power demand of the country which is 150MW.
The most the country could obtain was 80MW, which has now dropped to 40MW, Fatajo said.
